Major-General Jeremy Vearey, the former deputy provincial commissioner for detective services, and Major-General Peter Jacobs, the Western Cape's former crime intelligence boss, had to report for duty as cluster commanders for Cape Town and Wynberg, respectively, on Monday. Major-General Jeremy Vearey, the former deputy provincial commissioner for detective services, and Major-General Peter Jacobs, the Western Cape's former crime intelligence boss, had to report for duty as cluster commanders for Cape Town and Wynberg, respectively, on Monday.
Cape Town - Prominent whistleblower Vytjie Mentor has emerged as a central figure in the shock restructuring within the provincial police, which has exposed deep-rooted mistrust between officers in the Western Cape and nationally.
Read: Row after two top Cape cops 'demoted'
This comes after top gang buster Major-General Jeremy Vearey, former deputy provincial commissioner for detective services, and Major-General Peter Jacobs, who headed the Western Cape’s Crime Intelligence unit, were effectively demoted this week. The two were involved in several high-profile investigations, including into allegedly corrupt Crime Intelligence officers and politicians, before their sudden redeployment.
Read: Popcru lodges grievance after top cops demoted
Vearey has been shifted to a position he previously filled, commander of the Cape Town cluster of police stations, while Jacobs has been appointed Wynberg cluster commander.
In another controversial move, Brigadier Mzwandile Tiyo was appointed provincial Crime Intelligence head to replace Jacobs.
Tiyo, who previously acted as the head, was at one stage accused of driving while drunk, and police conducted a raid at his Paarl home. He believed these actions were orchestrated because he was investigating former provincial police commissioner Arno Lamoer, who was later charged with corruption.
Weekend Argus can reveal that in the run-up to this restructuring, Mentor, a former ANC MP, approached Vearey with sensitive information which was passed on to provincial police head Khombinkosi Jula’s office, then elevated to the Hawks at national level. Shortly afterwards Vearey and Jacobs were demoted.
This week Vearey did not deny that Mentor approached him, but declined to comment.
Sources have told Weekend Argus Vearey was demoted to try to squash the information Mentor supplied to his office, because his involvement in the Mentor matter angered police management.
National Hawks spokesman Brigadier Hangwani Mulaudzi, while acknowledging that Mentor’s affidavit came from the Western Cape, rejected this.
“It has got nothing to do with Ms Vytjie Mentor’s affidavit, it (is) a lie, to put it bluntly,” he said.
“The deployment of any SAPS member/s remains an internal matter between employer and employee.”
Mulaudzi confirmed the Hawks received an affidavit from Mentor. He said Jula’s office had passed it on to the Hawks. Mulaudzi said the contents of her affidavit could not be divulged as it was subject to an enquiry, by the Hawk’s Anti-Corruption unit.
Vearey made headlines in April when he publicly warned Community Safety MEC Dan Plato and gang kingpins, who he said were running a campaign to smear his name, that nothing would prevent investigations from progressing.
He said he believed attempts to discredit him had surged due to investigations heand Jacobs were conducting into some crime intelligence officers.
Plato has denied he was trying to discredit Vearey, who in turn believed Plato was using affidavits from dubious sources to do so.
In an affidavit relating to his arrest on Good Friday on suspicion of assaulting a police officer, alleged 28s gang leader Ralph Stanfield said it appeared he was caught in a dispute between Vearey and Mitchells Plain cluster commander Greg Goss, who were vying for positions within the police.
Goss was previously Cape Town cluster commander, and Vearey the Mitchells Plain cluster head.
About two weeks before Vearey was shifted from his post, ANC activist Colin Arendse wrote to Goss asking if he had worked for the apartheid government, infiltrating the Police and Prisons Civil Rights Union.
Goss told Weekend Argus he had responded to Arendse’s letter. He added that Arendse would have to prove he had been an apartheid-era spy, which was untrue.
caryn.dolley@inl.co.za
Weekend Argus